Tribes by Seth Godin – a very interesting (and short) read about how the connectedness of the ‘Net has allowed people with similar interested to form community. I’ve seen so much of this in the gaming community. Your students are part of these “Tribes.”Everything Bad Is Good for You by Steven Johnson – a very interesting look at how media consumption has likely altered how we think and work. Maybe playing video games and watching LOST isn’t so bad after all.

Sources to Explore:

Videos to Watch:

Here are videos on or related to the subject of games in the classroom that you should watch:

James Gee – Video Games, Learning, and Literacy

Jane McGonigal – Video Games Can Make A Better World

Stuart Brown – Why Play Is Valuable, No Matter Your Age

Tom Chatfield – 7 Ways Video Games Engage the Brain

No Future Left Behind

WoWinSchool – Student Perspectives

Games to Play and Build

Guild Wars 2Fantastic alternative to World of Warcraft that has no monthly subscription fee and emphasizes personal story and collaborative teamwork across servers. The emphasis on guilds and their role in the world makes it ideal.

World of Warcraft – the world’s most popular, fantasy-based, online roleplay game. Now nearing it’s seventh year of production, this game still boasts over 10 million subscribers. It’s rich in challenges, story-driven adventure, and opportunities for developing leadership, teamwork, and digital citizenship.

Minecraft – an amazing, independently-developed game out of Sweden. Imagine a virtual world made of individual building blocks (LEGOs) that multiple students can explore and create in together. Costs about $20. UPDATE – MinecraftEDU offers bulk licenses at a discount to educators!

Teach With Portals – Valve Software’s initiative to offer Portals 2 (and future resources?) to schools for use in the classroom. The site also serves as a hub for teachers to share resources related to the game.

Dimension-U – The first “educational” game that I’ve seen that actually begins to bridge that gap between “educational” and “real” games.

Have students build and develop their own games:

Scratch andSqueak – visual programming environments – great for all ages. Gamestar Mechanic – awesome game design system that allows kids to build and share their own Flash-based games. Kodu – a simplified version of Microsoft’s XNA programming environment used to make XBox and Windows Mobile.

Funding Ideas For Schools

Kickstarter.org – a crowdsourced funding site where individuals contribute to a project they’d like to see happen.

Donorschoose.org – a crowdsourced funding site designed to connect donors to classroom teachers.

TheLudusProject.org – part of the Breneman Jaech Foundation. It’s goal is “to support advancements in the research and application of games-based education and digital literacy.”